Border Demo Dispersed as U.N. Rushes Aid to 70,000 Syrian Kurds Fleeing into Turkey

As many as 70,000 Syrian Kurds have poured into Turkey since Friday fleeing an offensive by Islamic State jihadists in northeastern Syria, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Sunday.

The UNHCR "is stepping up its response to help Turkey come to the aid of an estimated 70,000 Syrians crossing into Turkey", most in the past 24 hours, the agency said in a statement.

Blankets, sleeping mats and kitchen sets were being dispatched, with 20 truckloads of aid already supplied, it said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, praised Turkey for taking in the refugees. The country is building two camps with UNHCR help to shelter the Syrian Kurds.

"This massive influx shows how important it is to offer and preserve asylum space for Syrians as well as the need to mobilize international support to the neighboring countries so generously hosting them," he said.

Meanwhile, Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannon Sunday to disperse a Kurdish demonstration of support for fellow Kurds who fled the jihadist offensive across the border.

AFP journalists said the hundreds of young demonstrators fought back by hurling rocks and setting up barricades on the road leading to a nearby border crossing.

"We've come to support our brothers in Syria under attack by Daesh," Turkish Kurdish demonstrator Mehmet Eminakma told AFP, referring to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

He also charged that Turkish authorities were blocking young Syrian Kurds who had accompanied their families to safety inside Turkey from returning to the battlefront.

The security forces forced demonstrators away from a barbed wire border fence that stands just five kilometers (three miles) from the town of Ain al-Arab.